Closure for containers



Feb. 14, 1928. 1,659,186

H. BATCHELOR CLOSURE FOR CONTAINERS Filed May 25, 1925 2 Q mm g INVENTOR 7A5 ATTQRNEYA/ Patented Feb. 14, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

HAROLD BATGHELOR, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOB TO ALBERT J.

' STERLING, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CLOSURE FOR CONTAINERS. 7

Application filed May as, 1925. Serial No. 32,264.

This invention relates to closures for containers and has particular reference to improvements in closures of the general type shown and described in United States application Serial No. 737,973, filed September 16, 1924, by the present applicant.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide a closure intended primarily for use in sealing containers for higll l charged liquids, gases, or liquids in W 10 gas may be generated, or other contents where a powerful seal must be effected and maintained indefinitely, although incidentally the improved closure may be used or adapted for use on containers where the requirements are not so severe.

Another of the ob 'ects of the invention is to provide a construction whereby in manufacturing closure caps for a user they may be readily adapted to his particular requirements. Some users may have a product reuiring only a light sealing pressure of the c osure against the mouth of the container, while others may have a product requiring a very high degree of such pressure to prevent the escape of gasesor liquids having an oily content or which are, for another example, highly volatile and exert great outward pressures on the closures, particularly where the bottles or other containers are or may be stored in a warm room. This variation according to the intended use is preferably effected by relieving tension or cutting away the material of the closure at various points to provide a plurality of yielding (preferably resiliently yielding) portions in the closure cap. Among the advantages of this feature is the fact that a standard closure cap may be manufactured and kept in stock and then the caps necessary to supply a user adapted to his particular requirements, particularly 7 where the size of the order does not justify making-a special set of tools.

Incidentally the invention embodies the same idea of shortening the skirt of the closure cap after it is in position on the container as was disclosed in the application above referred to, so that the present cap may be adjusted to insure a perfect seal or increase the tension between the closure and the mouth of the container, either as an additional precaution or to effect a more powerful seal than that resulting from the capping operation. This adjustment may, as

the improved cap may be applied hereinafter made clear, be effected either be 56 fore or after the cap is in position on the container.

The invention is hereinafter described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, but it is to be understood that it is not the desire to be limited to such details except as they are included inthe appended claims.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a top plan view, Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view, and Fig. 3 is a side view (partlybroken away), of one form of the improved closure cap.

- Fig 4 is a top view of a container to which Fig. 5 is a partial side view of the con tainer shown in Fig. 4 with one of the novel caps applied, the cap being shown in section along the line 55 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 6 is a side view of another and preferred form of the cap.

Fig. 7 is a side view of a modified form of the invention.

Fig. 8 shows another modification which may be used under certain circumstances as hereinafter explained.

In the accompanying drawing there is shown (Figs. 4 and 5) a container to which closure caps embodying the novel ideas may be applied. On the outer periphery of the neck of the container is a set of projections 10 having their lower faces 11 shaped or inclined to serve as cams. If the containers are of glass or other fragile material, the projections 10 may, if desired, have their upper surfaces sloped. upward and inward as shown at 12 (Fig. 5) so as to strengthen or give a backing for the projection, thereby giving a sturdy construction which will stand considerablestrain. One or more of the projections may be so constructed as to provide a stop 13 which is referred to more in detail later on.

All of the closure caps shown in the drawings are provided with substantially the same form of lug for cooperation with the cam faces 11 on the container. These lugs are preferably formed by shearing or slitting the material of the skirt along short lines 14 (Figs. 3, 6, 7 and 8) in peripheral alignment around the skirt 15 of the cap, the lengths of the cuts or shearings depending upon the size of the lug desired.

The material below the shearing 14 is then formed inward as at 16 (see also Fig. so

-as to give a concavity gradually increasing in depth from the bottom toward the top of the cancavity, thereby providing a very sturdy, inwardly extending, self-reinforced lug, the face or edge 17 (Fig. 5) of which is adapted to engage one of the cam faces 11 on the container. Lugs constructed in the manner shown and described are obvlously capable of resisting very considerable strains effected by the coaction of the lugs with the the material of the-skirt.

cam faces 11 as hereinafter described. This is particularly true because of the fact that the resilient material employed will not collapse ander strain and because of the fact that each lug is well above the lower line of the skirt and is held up to its work by The term self-reinforced is, for want of a better term, used in this specification and in the claims to describe this lug construction and to distinuish it from prior structures in which the ug is held up to its work by a reinforcing or stiffening surface or rib on the container.

\Vhile in the immediately foregoing the shearing along the lines 14 and the forming of the metal below the shearing to produce a self-reinforced lug have been spoken of as separate and successive operations, it is obvious that both operations may be combined in one by the use of suitable shearing and forming tools.

The closure cap shown in Fig. 8 is, like the other forms described later on, preferably made of material which is resilient but WhlCh is capable of being given different permanent sets when the elastic limit is exceeded. This permits forming the material in manufacture and later to etfect adjustments while retaining the resilientor spring properties of the metal. The cap s own in Fig. 8 has a head 20 formed so that portions of its upper and lower walls are substantially parallel or atsubstantially right an lesto the axis of the cap, thereby 'ving ahead which may readily be engaged y phers or a set of dies operable to force the upper and lower walls of the bead one toward the other, thereby closing up the head or, in effect, shortening the distance between the lugs 16 and the top 21 of the closure cap. Within the top of 'the cap is a disk or insert of cork or any other suitable material such as shown at 22 in Figs. 3 and 5/ The head 20 of the cap shown in Fig. 8 is knurled or corrugated so as to permit a firm rasp or engagement by a tool such as the ciuck of a capping machine In applyin the cap to a container. the cap is placed over the mouth of the container in such a way that the lugs 16 will pass between the projections 10. The cap is then rotated preferably until one of the lugs engages with the stop 13, thereby causing the lugs 16 to act against the cam faces 11 on the projections 10 to pull the closure into engagement with the month of the container. The strength of this pull depends upon the distance or length of the relative vertical movement of the cap and container etlected by the cooperation of the lugs 16 and cam faces 11 during the rotation of the cap. The bead 20 will permit a slight resilient vertical expansion of the ca but the degree of expansion is small. fter the cap is put in position as just described, the bead .20 may be compressed to bring the top of the closure into firmer engagement with the mouth of the container. From the foregoing it will be seen that the ca shown in Fig. 8 is suitable for use in efi dcting a highly satisfactory seal, particularly when the lugs 16 and cam faces 11 are substantially uniform in construction and coo aeration.

It has been found, however, that it is advisable to provide a more yielding structure than is shown in Fig. 8, preferably one in which resiliency of the material can be used to effect and maintain a seal even though there are variations and irregularities in the cooperating parts of the closure and the container. In the form shown in Fig. 7 the annular portion of the skirt of the cap above the lugs 16 is provided with helical slots 24 and the head 20 is corrugated or knurled so that it may be firmly grasped by hand or chuck. The lugs 16 are caused to coo erate with the cam faces 11 as before descri ed, but in doing this the torsional stress applied to the head 20 may cause a slight resilient yielding of the upper part of the cap relative to the lower part thereof, the sections of the skirt between the slots 24 having somewhat the function of strong springs. When the application of rotating force to the head 20 is discontinued these sections tend to return to their first positions, thereby adjusting the insert 22 to the month of the container and insuring a perfect and very strong seal. The number of the helical slots 24 may be varied according to the sealing tension required. The head 20 in this form of cap is also constructed so that it may be compressed at one or more points to perfect or inclease the efficiency of the seal.

The form of cap shown in Figs. 1. 2 and 3 employs the same self-reinforced lugs 16 as previously described and has the same head 20 suitably constructed for engagement by tools for closing up the head to. in effect, shorten the skirt or the distance between the lugs 16 and the top of the cap. However, insteadof using the helical slots 24 such as shown in Fig. 7, the form of cap now being described has a plurality of slots 95 extending vertically through the bead. thereby dividing the head into a plurality of separate portions capab e of yielding more or less independently of one another when the sealing stress is applied by rotating the cap with its lugs 16 in engagement with the cam faces 11 on the container. This separate or independent yielding afiords a suitable way of compensating for minor irregularities. For example, if the mouth of the container should slant slightly the sections of the bead between the slots 25 would yield more at one side than the sections at the other side, thereby causing a sli ht tilt of the top of the cap and bringing the seal into firm and uniform engagement with the mouth of the container. The number of slots 25 may be varied according to the requirements as to stiffness or resiliency." If suitable material is used the sections of the head between the slots therein form substantially a peripheral or annular series ofs'prings.

The form of cap shown in Fig. 6 is preferred. It has the same bead 20 as the other forms and is used for the same purposes. The bead has vertical slots 27 dividing the bead into separate yielding sections for the same purpose as previously pointed out. In the preferred form these separate portions are made even more independent in their operation, by peripheral slots connectin certain of the vertical slots. It has been ound best to make these peripheral slots in the form of knife cuts just below the bead, although in Fig. 6 they are shown at 28 slightly below the bead. This showlng 1s, however, for the sake of clearness by preventing confusion with the shading of the lower part of the bead. It is obvious, of

course, that much the same result can be ac complished by making the peripheral slots in the bead itself or at any pomt where they will connect two or more of the adjacent vertical slots. 1

In manufacturing the caps they may all be manufactured uniformly like the one shown in Fig. 8, or the operations carried as far as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. Either of these two forms will have quite a wide range of usefulness. Then the peripheral slots 28 may be put in, the number of such slots 28 varying according to the use to which the caps are to be put. Preferably both the vertical slots 27 and the peripheral slots 28 are made with the specific use in view, the number of such slots varying with the pressure which it is necessary to apply against the container month.

In addition to this flexibility with reference to the number and positions of the slots, the head 20 gives an additional means for adapting a stock cap to specific uses. While, as before stated in this application and as explained more fully in the previous application above mentioned, the bead may be operated upon after the cap is in posltion on the container, the compression of the bead may be partially effected in all of a lot of caps before they are applied to contalners where it is desired to increase the sealing tension or shorten the skirts .to compensate for a change in the distance from the effective faces of the cams 11 and the top of the container mouth. A corresponding increase in the distances between the cam faces and the top of the container may be compensated for by an expansion or partial opening of the bead to lengthen the skirt, although this cannot be carried to such an extent as to interfere with proper engagement of the head by tools for compressing the head after the closures are in sealing position.

If desired, the reinforced lugs 16 in the closure caps may be so formed that one side of one or all of the lugs will be substantially ,on a radius of the cap, thereby forming a more or less abrupt stop to cooperate with the stop 13 on the container.

What is claimed is:

liThe combination with a container provided with a plurality of projections around its mouth having their lower faces formed as cams, of a closure cap of resilient material including a skirt having a portion there of constructed to provide an annular series of springs, and a plurality of self-reinforced lugs formed in the skirt below the series of sprin and wholly above the lower edge of t e s 'rt for engaging the aforesaid cam faces.

2. The combination with a container provided with a plurality of projections around its mouth the lower faces of which are formed to serve as cams. of a closure cap of resilient material including a skirt provided with an annular bead slotted vertically to divide the bead into separate resiliently yielding portions and a plurality of slots extending in an annular direction and connecting certain of the vertical slots, and a plurality of self-reinforced lugs below the resiliently yielding portions constructed sub stantially as descrlbed for cooperation with the aforesaid cam faces.

3. The combination with a container having a plurality of projections around its mouth the lower faces of which are constructed to serve as cams of a closure cap of resilient material including a skirt having self-reinforcing lugs in its periphery constructed substantially as described for cooperating with the aforesaid cam faces, and an annular bead above said lugs and below the top of the skirt constructed to yield resiliently when the cap is rotated with the lugs therein in cooperating relation with the cam faces.

4;. The method of manufacturing closure caps for sealing containers for various materials requiring varying degrees of sealing tension, which comprises forming each cap from resilient material and forming selfreinforced lugs in the lower portion of the skirt for cooperating with the project-ions around the mouths of the containers, formengaged by a tool for closing up the bead ing a peripheral bend in the skirt above the to tighten the seal, and slitting the skirt lugs in such manner that the bend may rcabove the lugs to form any desired number 10 siliently expand as the lugs on the skirt are of ielding portions in the skirt.

5 brought into sealing cooperation with the n testimony whereof I hereto aflix my container projections, said bead also being signature. made to project far enough to be readily HAROLD BATCHELOR. 

